St. Paul daily globe., 1887-01-03
THE SPEAK tkSH9P.
Merriam, Buffuni, Lee and Barker
Confident of Being Elected.

Confident OF Being Elected.
Neither Merriam, Lee, Buffum nor
Barker-the four candidates for speaker
will give out any estimate of their strength.
All of them profess to be confident, and
this tends to discOncert the man who thinks
he knows something about it. If politi
clan can tell the truth. the rumors about
combinations between Merriam and Barker
and Buffum and Lee haven't Il particle of
foundation. All of them give emphatic
denial to the report, and each declares that
be is standing entirely on his own bottom.
The entire qnartette were circulating about
in the Merchants lobby last night waylay-
ing the gueless members, shaking hands
with everybody and smiling as if they had
drawn a prize in the Louisiana lottery.
Mr.. Buffum has way of talking that i'm
presses one with his honesty and sincerity.
After giving denial to the rumOr that he
and Lee had pooled their issues he said he
believed his forces would go to Lee if he
was to Withdraw. and that Lees forces would
come to him if Lee was to get out of the
way. The men supporting Lee and him
self were generally farmers. Their inter-
estS were in common, and naturally they
were inclined to keep together. 1t was not
the result of any combination, but simply
own inclinations. Lee, he said, had good
deal of strength among the farmers. He
was sure Merriam was making no inroadS
on the forces of the other candidates. and
did not believe there was any probability of
his election. He expected, he said, to at
tend the farmers meeting this morning, but
he was in favor of taking no action that
| would bind the members. He did not
think
ANY ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN
on the speakership at all. The farmers
should simply discuss matters affecting
! their interests. but not allow the meeting
to be turned into a political vehicle in the
| interest of any person. Mr.. Buffum says
the farmers have eighty seven members of
the legislature II. F. Barker says his
prospects are good. He denies that he has
made any combination with Merriam.
| When asked If he was not friendly to
| Merriam he said he was friendly to all of
them, and when he was asked if
| he was not especially friendly to
Merriam he laughingly admitted that he
was. Ee said he had pledges of support
from many prominent farmers, but could
not give out any estimate of his strength.
He was waiting to hear the action of the
farmers meeting Their action would
have a great deal to do III shaping his
course. W. r. Merriam is the rnstler of
all the candidates. He is continually on the
go. and don't stop long to talk to any one
person. He says he is certain to get there.
| When asked about the alleged combination
| between Barker and himself he laughed,
and said there was nothing in it. He be-
lieved. however. that Barker would vote
for him. He didn't know anything about
Lee having been Democrat at one time,
but he would not be astonished to find out
that it was true. William Z. Lee denied
the story about the combination between
himself and Buffum, and said the outlook
was very encouraging for him. He took the
same view of his own and Buffum's sup
port, however, as Buffum did. Mr.. Lee
denied that he ever was Democrat. or thai
he ever acted with the Democrats. He
admitted. though, that he had voted fol
Tilden, and asserted that he was not
ashamed of it. The doubts and fears OF
/ these four worthy gentlemen will be set a
rest by this time to o-morrOw. At present il
would be folly to hazard prediction as t.
, the outcome The senatorship and the
speakership are so mixed up together tina
they must be untangled before much of a
definite character can be learned.